. >> if hagel gets confirmed, do you think you could help him do the job of reforming at the pentagon and saving some money? >> yes, i think -- well, in the first few months -- i won't be there long enough even if i get it. but the job there is to run interference for him. by the way, some basic politics, you understand, chris, cutting existing weapons systems with all the web of contracts out there can be hard, but what you can do is not start new ones. it's easier to block projects that shouldn't be done going forward than to start them, and i certainly will be there. i hope he's going to continue to support the notion of an early withdrawal from afghanistan, not keep 20,000 troops there forever at a cost of billions, and finally i think it's time to re-examine a nuclear deterrent which we still maintain basically at the strength we needed to defeat a fully nuclear armed soviet union and the troops in europe. i misspoke when i said pull the troops out of nato. i want us to stay in nato but let the western european nations keep the troops in western europe. let's have a genuine coope